Operating modern video cameras may no longer require multi-person camera crews and therefore camera operators now often work solo and need to move quickly, with minimal assistance, from one location to the next. Often this requires expeditiously packing the camera and equipment into handbags and backpacks that can be carried by one person and readily unpacking and setting up at the new location. The ability to remove the camera and fold the stabilizer equipment in order to reduce the space required for storage and transport is therefore increasingly desirable. ‘Compacting’ camera stabilizing equipment, such as a Steadicam®-type stabilizer, as much as possible allows users of the system to transport the device conveniently and potentially at a lower cost, and to fit it readily into compact spaces such as in cars trunks and overhead airplane luggage compartments.
Modern Steadicam® stabilizers now typically provide adjustable spacing between the onboard monitor and batteries, which counterbalance one another in order to achieve static and dynamic balance. This also can augment or reduce the rotational inertia of the camera support platform about its central upright axis without affecting vertical balance. This inertial adjustment is preferably accomplished by slideably extending and retracting the forward monitor position vs. the rearward battery position. Given the fact that Steadicam®-type camera stabilizers increase rotational inertia to dampen unwanted rotations, it can be seen that slow, precise camera movements are facilitated by adjusting the position of the counterbalancing masses to provide increased rotational inertia in all three rotational axes—commonly designated ‘pan’ (rotation about the vertical axis), ‘tilt’ (rotation about an axis parallel to the axis of the camera lens), and ‘roll’ (rotation about an axis roughly perpendicular to the camera lens axis). Rapid ‘panning’ requires the opposite condition—i.e. minimum rotational inertia to reduce the effort of initiating and stopping these rotations.
Given further that rotational inertia for these stabilizer devices increases by the square of the distance between the counterbalancing masses, adjusting for maximum inertia typically involves sliding the monitor as far forward as practical (consistent with the operator's acceptable sightline for viewing), and sliding the remaining masses, typically including the batteries, rearward as far as practical. This can be accomplished by mounting these masses to the opposite ends of one or more appropriately oriented support rods that can be adjustably slid for-and-aft, in perpendicular relationship to the central vertical post structure of the camera support, and then rigidly clamped thereto.
Problems occur when the need arises to fold or otherwise compact these camera stabilizer devices, because monitor, batteries and associated support structures, extend from the device, even when fully retracted.
Accordingly, a need exists for a folding means that permits the support rods to be selectively clamped in either the operative orientation or a folding (storage) orientation, preferably quickly and conveniently, without the use of tools, and that reduces the size of the equipment to its minimum practical ‘envelope’ for storage and transport.